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Daily Archive: September 7, 2011

As part of its efforts to curtail government spending, Congress recently cut funding to Legal Services Corp., a non-profit group that funds more than 100 state programs that provide legal aid to the poor. So far, the government has slashed nearly $16 million from the organization’s budget; next year, they want to cut an additional $104 million. It’s admirable that the government is searching for ways to balance our ballooning national budget. But, once again, our elected officials are looking in the wrong places and cutting much needed services.

Recently, the New Pittsburgh Courier reported that as of Aug. 31, 53 people had become victims of homicides in Allegheny County. Out of that number, 44 were identified as African-American or Black. As the number of Black homicide victims continues to rise, one can’t help but wonder what, if any, relationship exists between the proliferation of murder and mayhem within the Black community and the expanding and disproportionate rate of Black unemployment. How many of the Black and otherwise victims of homicide were unemployed? What about the known and/or possible suspected perpetrators? How many murders were the outgrowths of attempted or successful robberies, burglaries perpetrated by desperate, hopeless, unemployed and disillusioned people?

Two recent occurrences and the reactions they provoked drew a bright line highlighting the difference between racism and White supremacy. The two are actually not the same because the concept of White supremacy in America, with all her sordid history, exists in cases where there is little or no racism. The two examples are Carolina Panthers owner Jerry Richardson’s insistence that his quarterback Cam Newton grows no facial hair and have no tattoos or piercings, and an ad by the lotion manufacturer Nivea suggesting a similar point of view. First, let’s look at the Newton situation.

An underreported aspect of the conflict in Libya is that some anti-Gadhafi rebels are indiscriminately killing Black people, according to reports. The African Union has refused to recognize the Transitional National Council of Libya as the legitimate government of that country because they charge that the rebels have been indiscriminately killing Black Africans, confusing innocent workers with mercenaries that Moammar Gadhafi has recruited from sub-Saharan African countries as his soldiers and bodyguards.

This week I visited the Greater Pittsburgh Coliseum in Homewood, The Howze Family Reunion in the Hill District and the August Wilson Center for African American Culture. My first stop was at the Howze Family Reunion in the Hill District where Sala Udin and family came together to enjoy each other’s company, eat great food and have a great time. The Howze family chillin’ at the Howze Family Reunion held in the Hill District.

Thursday 8 Jazz Jam CJ’s Restaurant & Lounge presents “The Roger Humphries & RH Factor Jazz Jam Session” at 8 p.m. at 2901-2911 Penn Ave., Strip District. There will be live jazz and fun every Thursday night. Must be 30-years or older and there is a dress code that will be enforced. No tennis shoes, sweats, or athletic gear. For more information, call 412-642-2377.

The beauty and skin care industry is known to be a billion dollar business. Product names like Dove, Ivory, Oil of Olay, Aveeno and Mary Kay have been dominating the market throughout the years. Lately Carol’s Daughter and on a local level, Third Day Luxury Soaps have been making a dent in the market. “What makes me unique compared to other beauty and bath products is that my merchandise is 87 percent organically based,” described owner Cynthia Hill. Not trying to compete or compare herself to the market giants, she says her five-year goal is to have her company financially stable, to gain a strong Internet presence and to develop a Third Day sales staff. LUXURY IN A HEALTHY WAY—Cynthia Hill, owner of Third Day Luxury Soaps displays one of many items she sells at the Pittsburgh Public Market in the Strip. (Photos by Diane I. Daniels) Located at the Pittsburgh Public Market, Smallman at 17th Street in the Strip District Friday through Sunday, Hill relishes the fact that she is able to not only sell her products but to share skin and body care techniques with her customers.

by Shevry Lassiter (NNPA)—A handful of BP stockholders gathered last week in Washington, D.C., in front of the Willard Office Building in Northwest to protest the failure by attorney Ken Feinberg, the government-appointed administrator of the BP Deepwater Horizon Disaster Victim Compensation Fund, to settle claims filed by minority victims of the historic Gulf Coast oil spill. A boycott against BP was announced during a brief press conference held during the protest. PROTESTING BP OIL—Gregory Rocker and Dick Gregory during protest. Art Rocker, chairman/facilitator of Operation People for Peace, an organization representing more than 400 churches, hundreds of ministers and some 500,000 underserved parishioners, along with human rights activist Dick Gregory and Dr. E. Faye Williams, Esq., chair of the National Congress of Black Women, have joined forces to assist people seeking compensation for loss of their livelihood as a result of the 2010 Gulf Coast disaster.

I have a question for all of you “baby boomers” out there. Do any of you remember the old advertising pitch by ‘Esso’ now Exxon; “put a tiger in your tank.” What about the one thing that we heard over and over again in regards to quenching our thirst, well at least before we were forced to pay for H2O? Do things really go better with Coke? Was Ajax laundry detergent really “stronger than dirt?” All of the aforementioned advertising slogans were meant to do two things; tap into our psyches and our pocketbooks.